
I MILITARY INFORMATION DIVISION, A. G. 0. 



SECTION. 



SUBJECT. 



SHELF. 






GREA1 BRITAIN, 




L lf>pfcw to It 's . JP&c 

AFTER READING CHAUCER. 853 

undervaluations, and the two acts work together for the protection and 
collection of the revenues. This is probably the most completely pro- 
tective code ever enacted ; and the stir it has created will keep the 
eyes of the world upon the United States during cbming years, to see 
whether the system will succeed, or, as many of our foreign relations 
might probably prefer, whether the new tariff may not create financial 
difficulties or administrative and diplomatic troubles necessitating an 
early repeal. 

Joel Cook. 



I, POLYCRATES. 

HE, Polycrates, tyrant of his land, 
Upon whose lips fell fickle Fortune's kiss, 
Bestowing, all unasked, unhoped-for bliss, — 
Love, honor, wealth, more than his dreams had planned, — 
He, fearful lest the free, unstinting hand 

Should change its grace to greed and him dismiss, 
Flung, as a hostage, to the sea's abyss 
A gem no monarch's ransom might command. 

I, Polycrates of this modern time, 
Poorer than poverty in but this thing, 

That love is mine beyond my soul's desire, 
Here fling my heart — sole treasure of my rhyme — 
Into Love's sea, that I, unmeriting, 
Unto his endless blessing may aspire. 

S. D. S., Jr. 



AFTER READING CHAUCER. 

OPOET ! thou wert like a flower 
That grows in beauty hour by hour 
Within the wood, 
Unfolding in that lonely place, 
Uplifting hopefully its face, 
And cheering with its tender grace 
The solitude. 

O poet ! thou wert like a bird 
Whose voice at early dawn is heard, 

As, mounting higher, 
The morning air around him rings ; 
Between the heaven and earth he sings, 
A golden glory on his wings, 

Celestial fire ! 

Minna Irving. 



1 

854 THE BERMUDA ISLANDS. 

Til# BERMUDA ISLANDS. 

IF more of the inhabitants of our Eastern States who are able to 
take vacations in winter knew that an earthly paradise lies off 
our eastern coast, only about seven hundred miles, or three days' sail, 
from New York, undoubtedly many of this happily-situated class would 
buy excursion-tickets to this paradise, and in its even and balmy climate 
gloat over the unhappy majority they had left behind to bear the brunt 
of our capricious winter. But somehow the good things of life, even 
when they are near by, manage to escape very general observation, and 
so the beautiful little islands for the centuries since they were discovered 
have been enjoyed until very recently only by a chosen few. Some of 
the old poets sang of them, it is true, — Shakespeare, Marvell, Waller, 
— though they probably saw them only with the spirit's eye ; but even 
their melodious strains sent out no Jason-led expeditions. Later that 
wandering minstrel Tom Moore actually set his own poetical feet among 
these rarely-visited islands, and, pitching his tent upon one of them, 
chanted out his ecstasy : 

No, ne'er did the wave in its element steep 

An island of lovelier charms ; 
It blooms in the giant embrace of the deep 

Like Hebe in Hercules' arms. 
The blush of your bowers is light to the eye, 

And their melody balm to the ear ; 
But the fiery planet of day is too nigh, 

And the snow-spirit never comes here. 

To us who grow weary of the snow-spirit and who are glad to escape 
it, it is only an added charm that this chilly sprite does not haunt Ber- 
muda, and the "fiery planet of day" is not a bit too nigh in the winter- 
time, when the thermometer takes a stand at about 70° and deviates 
but little from this enviable indication of temperature. It is the ab- 
sence of the snow-spirit, joined with the charm of the climate and the 
beauty of the land, that is bound to make Bermuda, as it becomes 
better known, one of the most popular of winter resorts. 

The trip is a very short one. You leave New York with an ulster 
buttoned closely about you on a Thursday afternoon, and reach Bermuda 
on Sunday morning and are glad to shed your fur. The first view of 
land from a distance is not reassuring to the sea-weary passenger, for 
he strains his eyes to gaze upon some little dots away out upon the ocean 
which look as if they must forever rock with the motion of the sea. 
But as the vessel draws nearer he begins to see that it is land sure 
enough, though not a very considerable amount of it ; for the entire 
area of these tiny islands does not amount to twenty square miles, and 
there are between three and four hundred of them in the group; not 
more than twenty being large enough to be inhabitable. The four 
largest islands are united by ferry, causeways, and bridges, the strip of 
connected mainland being thus about twenty-five miles long, though 
nowhere more than three miles in breadth, and in most places not one. 



/3-ZIZ3S& 



THE BERMUDA ISLANDS. 855 

This narrow strip extends in a curved line resembling a shepherd's crook. 
Encircling the islands is a chain of reefs with but a small number of 
navigable openings, which renders the enclosed land an almost impreg- 
nable natural fortress. A darky pilot comes on board and guides the 
vessel safely through the dangerous -channels, and one begins to see that 
besides natural defences there are heavily-armed forts and batteries at 
every exposed point, and commanding the entrances through the reefs, 
and all the principal channels, for, next to Gibraltar, Bermuda is the 
strongest fortified place in the world. It seems like entering into fairy- 
land as the steamer threads its way among numbers of little islands 
which make new pictures at every turn, while the transparency of the 
water is a revelation in itself. A sudden turn brings the steamer into 
the beautiful land-locked harbor of Hamilton, which is the capital and 
principal town of Bermuda. 

Hamilton is the great metropolis, and all roads lead to it. It con- 
tains the leading hotels and boarding-houses, and has a population of 
something over two thousand souls, which of course is increased during 
the winter season. The houses and public buildings are all built of 
the white coral stone, and it is the whitest-looking town that can be 
imagined. The houses are white even to their roofs and chimneys, and 
the streets are of the same dazzling whiteness, for the roads are formed 
by cutting down to the white coral bed, and then the surface is smoothed, 
and indeed has an almost polished look. Mark Twain, who was in 
Bermuda some years ago, and who embodied his observations in a little 
book entitled " Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion," tells a story of 
an old sea-captain who came over with him and found a difficulty when 
he first got on a white Bermuda road. He kept wandering unrestfully 
from side to side, until finally he exclaimed, " Well, I chew, you know, 
and the road's so plaguy clean." All the natives in Bermuda, white 
and black, appear to have read and enjoyed Mark Twain's skit, and 
references to it are universal. Not far from the steamboat-landing is a 
huge india-rubber tree. If you stop to look at it, — as you naturally 
will, for it is a magnificent specimen, — and a native happens along to 
point out its beauties, he will make a grinning allusion to Mark Twain ; 
he will not explain, because he thinks that, being a countryman of 
Mark Twain's, you know his " Idle Excursion" by heart. It seems 
that our humorist was greatly disappointed in not finding any gum 
shoes or suspenders growing upon the tree, and came to the conclusion 
that it was out of season. 

You can get a great variety of scenery in a few hours' drive about 
the connected islands. Now you drive by a bold and rocky coast, 
looking out upon a wonderful sea of many colors; then you are 
plunged into the thick shade of cedars, while oleander bushes, covered 
with large, exquisite flowers, line the dazzling white road. These 
oleanders attain an enormous size, often towering above the stunted 
pines, and grow in great profusion all over the islands, bearing several 
varieties of flowers. You catch glimpses now and then of fields of 
white stately lilies, and then skirt along by thick clumps of banana- 
trees, or by tall and erect bamboos, and jungles of mangroves, and 
here and there orange-, lemon-, lime-, pomegranate-, calabash-, and 



856 THE BERMUDA ISLANDS. 

pawpaw-trees, and varieties of the palm. The gleaming white houses 
which peep at you from behind trees and flowers make a pretty con- 
trast to the luxuriant foliage about them. You see no grand and 
stately mansions, but all the houses, even the humblest, present a neat 
and attractive appearance. Abject poverty if it exists in Bermuda is 
hidden from sight; indeed, it is said that there is no such thing as pau- 
perism strictly so called ; certainly one sees no beggars, nor any signs of 
absolute want. The natives cannot well help having attractive-looking 
houses, however, for the stone is beautiful, and can be dug right out of 
the cellar. The coral stone is easily quarried by means of a long chisel 
used like a crow-bar in drilling, and can be sawed to the required dimen- 
sions with an ordinary hand-saw ; it is very soft at first, but hardens 
gradually upon exposure to the air. The roofs are made of thin coral 
slabs, and the entire house receives a coating of whitewash, which ren- 
ders it more impervious to dampness. Over the porches of many of 
these houses there grows a thick vine called the bougainvillea, which 
bears in generous profusion great masses of brilliant purple flowers, 
that stand out in beautiful relief from the gleaming white background. 
Flowers are everywhere, — oleanders, geraniums, lilies, lantanas, pinks, 
jessamine, roses, and many other species ; besides numbers of flowering 
shrubs. There are no manufactories, no screaming locomotives, nothing 
to disturb the quiet, or to raise smoke and dust to rob the bloom from 
the flowers or to dull the pure white of the houses. Nowhere else is 
such woiiderful neatness to be seen. 

One wonders, in going about a place naturally so suggestive of peace 
and quiet, to see the great numbers of forts and batteries, and to come 
across here and there squads of red-coated soldiers, or marines. But, 
as these islands hold vast quantities of English arms and ammunition, 
they have need to be well guarded; and here, too, is the rendezvous for 
the British fleet in all these waters. 

It was not until after the Revolutionary War that England awoke 
to the great strategic importance of these islands, for their importance 
as a British possession is irrespective of their dimensions or commercial 
relations. Situated as they are within two or three days' sail of any 
of the ports on our Atlantic coast, and about midway between the 
British possessions in the West Indies and North America, they form 
a most important base for naval operations, and should we have another 
war with England we would undoubtedly find Bermuda a most un- 
comfortable little neighbor. During the war of the Revolution the 
Bermudians sympathized wiiii the Americans, and secretly allowed an 
American vessel to bear off a hundred barrels of powder from a maga- 
zine in a remote part of the main island. Washington himself had 
sent an address to the Bermudians asking them for ammunition to help 
the cause of the Americans. At the time his troops were almost desti- 
tute of ammunition, and the powder procured from the Bermudians led 
to the first great victory gained by Washington in the Revolutionary 
War, the evacuation of Boston by the British army. 

Undoubtedly the loss of the thirteen American colonies enhanced 
the value of the Bermudas in the mother-country's eyes, and led her 
to strengthen herself upon them. She has made the islands an almost 



THE BERMUDA ISLANDS. 857 

impregnable fortress, and has stored among them great quantities of 
ammunition. On one of the islands, called " Ireland Island," there is 
a steam-factory of the first class, and every facility exists for the repair- 
ing of ships. Here is the famous floating dock, the largest in the world. 
It weighs over eight thousand tons, and cost nearly a million of dollars. 
Numerous forts and batteries guard the approaches to this dock-yard, 
and there is a large submarine mining establishment by which torpe- 
does and other subsidiary means of defence can be put down at short 
notice ; and movable road-batteries are prepared to supplement the 
stationary defences. 

Lying near the dock is one of Lord Nelson's old line-of-battle 
ships, the Invincible, one of the participants in the battles of the 
Baltic and Trafalgar, which is now used as a sort of floating boarding- 
house for marines ; and almost side by side, in sharp contrast with this 
relic of a glorious past, lies the Scorpion, an iron-clad built to run the 
blockade and fight for the Confederacy, but it was finished too late 
for its intended purpose, and has led a life of idleness and peace. 
The old Nelson hulk has certainly earned its rest, and it seems poetical 
justice that it should lie at ease in its old age in the tranquil waters of 
a British colony, surrounded by the din of ship-repairing, and gathering 
to itself a lot of marines as a hen gathers her chickens. 

The Bermudas have been brought into closer connection with the 
mother-country and with America by means of an ocean cable, which 
was laid last June. The cable extends from Halifax to Hamilton, and 
is nearly nine hundred miles in length. 

There are always about fifteen hundred English soldiers stationed 
about different parts of the islands. Their brilliant red coats contrast 
well with the white coral stone ; but one wonders that England clings to 
so showy a uniform which makes of each soldier a most striking target. 
General Wolseley has of late been advocating a gray uniform for fight- 
ing purposes, which would certainly be more serviceable, if less orna- 
mental. 

I had the pleasure of viewing a sham battle, to which the bril- 
liant uniforms contributed much as a spectacular performance ; but 
the bright red coats gleamed even through the smoke of battle, and a 
detachment that was supposed to be lying in ambush behind thick 
bushes was plainly discernible, and could easily have been shot to pieces 
in a real game of war. It was a fine sight, though, and numbers of 
fierce-looking officers prancing about on fiery chargers lent a realistic 
air to the performance. 

Most of the troops are stationed at a camp called Prospect, and there 
are also commodious barracks at St. George's. St. George's was in 
ancient times the chief town and the seat of government : it is the 
oldest settlement upon the islands, and was founded early in the seven- 
teenth century. The town has a Spanish look, and its appearance 
probably suggested the legend that Bermuda was colonized by the 
Spaniards, which is untrue. After the discovery of the islands by the 
Spaniard Juan Bermudez, who failed in an attempt to land, circa 1510, 
the Bermudas were granted by Philip II. to Ferdinand Camelo, a Por- 
tuguese, who took possession of them, it is true, in 1543, but he did not 



858 THE BERMUDA ISLANDS. 

remain, and effected no settlement. The third visitant to the islands 
was an Englishman, named Henry May, who was wrecked in a French 
vessel off Bermuda in 1593. He gained the shore with some other 
survivors, and remained five months, during which time the party built 
a cedar boat and made their way to Newfoundland. 

The colonization of the Bermudas came about in this way. In 
1609 an expedition of nine English ships bound for the colony of 
Virginia, and commanded by Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, 
and Captain Newport, was dispersed by a great storm. One of the 
ships, the Sea Adventure, commanded by Sir George Somers, was 
wrecked on the reefs of Bermuda, and the crew managed to reach the 
land. They built a cedar pinnace, in which they sailed to Virginia, 
but, finding the infant colony badly off for supplies, they returned to 
Bermuda, in order, if possible, to found a settlement. Shortly after 
this second visit Sir George died, and his crew, with the exception of 
three men who remained to hold possession of the islands, sailed for 
England, taking with them the embalmed body of their commander. 
Upon the arrival of the crew in England, they spread stories of the 
many charms possessed by the land they had left behind them, and a 
company was formed to colonize the islands. The first ship-load of 
emigrants landed in 1612, and ever since Bermuda has been a colony 
of Great Britain. Sir George Somers's gallant heart was buried in a 
beautiful garden which stands now in the centre of St. George's, which 
contains a monument to his memory. In this garden are palm-trees 
said to be one hundred and fifty years old. Indeed, everything about 
St. George's suggests the past : its very narrow streets are silent and 
have a deserted look, for its glory has departed. During our civil war 
life and activity came back to the old town for a time, for here many 
blockade-runners were fitted out, and the pockets of many of its in- 
habitants fairly bulged with wealth ; but they spent their easily-acquired 
gains lavishly, and with the end of the war their bright bubbles burst 
and left nothing behind. 

The quaint old town fairly bristles with forts, which are said to be 
among the strongest in the world. The streets wind their narrow ser- 
pentine ways up the hill on which the town is largely built ; the gardens 
are hemmed in by high walls covered with different species of cacti, 
while over them pawpaws and plantains raise their heads, and here and 
there the graceful palmetto towers above all. A quaint and peaceful 
old town indeed, whose narrow streets, so tradition says, once frequently 
ran with blood, for pirates and buccaneers were wont to make their 
raids at times, and the streets were built purposely narrow that they 
might readily be blockaded against these blood-thirsty foes. 

Since 1685, at which time the charter of the company expired and 
the proprietary form of government ceased, Bermuda has been a crown 
colony. The government is administered by a governor, a legislative 
and executive council, and a house of assembly. 

The population of the islands amounts to about fifteen thousand 
souls, of whom something over sixty per cent, are colored. The white 
population is mostly composed of descendants of the old English settlers, 
with a sprinkling of immigrants from America and Portugal. The 



THE BERMUDA ISLANDS. 859 

negroes are descended from African and American-Indian slaves : they 
were emancipated in 1834, and now enjoy the same political privileges 
as the whites ; they seem anxious to improve themselves, and are gradu- 
ally taking a better position. Their upward progress is looked upon 
with considerable uneasiness by the whites, who, of course, are anxious 
to retain the upper hand, and seem to fear the negroes as possible rivals 
in the local government of Bermuda. 

The principal enterprise in Bermuda is the raising of onions and 
potatoes for the. New York markets. The onion crops have not been 
very profitable of late, owing mainly to a disease which has been 
playing havoc with them ; but, even if they lose, the Bermuda farmers 
go on planting onions from force of habit, and their whole-souled 
devotion to these and to potatoes causes a scarcity of other vegetables. 
The soil is in general rich and productive, yielding three crops a year, 
and almost any vegetable will thrive in it. Bananas are the staple 
fruit, and other flax plants grow readily, such as the plantain, the 
Spanish dagger, the wild aloe, and the okra ; all these produce flax and, 
hemp of different textures, but no steady or systematic attempt has 
been made to turn them to account. 

However, there is certainly an excuse for want of enterprise and 
energy in Bermuda, for, while the climate is mild and delightful, it is 
by no means conducive to activity of mind or body. The very air, 
scented with the breath of roses and jessamine and sweet-smelling 
cedars, lulls one to a languorous repose. Over all these hangs a spirit 
of peace and dreamful ease. You feel far away from and careless of 
the world's toil and endeavor. Readily you can imagine yourself in 
the land of the lotos, and give yourself over to watching 

The crisping ripples on the beach, 
And tender curving lines of creamy spray. 

******** 
Surely, surely, slumber is more sweet than toil, the shore 
Than labor in the deep mid-ocean, wind and wave and oar. 

Tennyson might have sat upon these Bermuda hills, overlooking a 
land of nodding flowers out to a languorous sea, and penned his 
exquisite poem of "The Lotos-Eaters;" and surely "Tears, Idle 
Tears" might have sprung as a direct inspiration from this land of 
onions. 

Now a word as to the best time for a visit to Bermuda, together 
with a few practical hints. The season — that is, the gay season — 
scarcely begins before January, and lasts until April, though many, 
especially health-seekers, go over in November or early in December. 
It is hardly safe for invalids to return to the United States earlier than 
April. Hardy people can go and come when they please, and a great 
many now make short trips of scarcely more than a fortnight's duration, 
including the passage to and fro. This allows about ten days on land 
and five for the passage. Many make even shorter trips, remaining 
but four days on land, and so making the entire trip in nine days. 
Steamers of the Quebec Steamship Company leave New York every 



860 THE BERMUDA ISLANDS. 

Thursday from January to July, and make fortnightly departures during 
the remainder of the year. The fare for the round trip, including state- 
room, is fifty dollars. Hotel accommodations can be had anywhere 
from twenty-five dollars to twelve dollars per week. The Hamilton 
and the Princess are the largest and most expensive hotels, both of 
them being first-class in every particular. Excellent accommodations 
at lower rates may be had at the Windsor, the American House, and 
the Brunswick, and also at a number of boarding-houses. 

As to amusements, these, of course, depend much upon the taste of 
the visitor; but no one can help enjoying the beautiful scenery both 
afloat and ashore, which gives zest to a great variety of excursions 
which may be undertaken by land or sea, while the bathing, boating, 
and fishing are excellent. The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club gives now 
and then a gala-day upon the water, and it is an exquisite sight to see 
the trim craft darting about among the coral reefs and spreading to 
the winds wonderful stretches of snowy canvas. For nowhere do 
boats carry more sail than in Bermuda. The social character of the 
season is enhanced by the admixture of officers of the army and navy, 
and their brilliant uniforms add much to the effects of the picturesque 
hops which take place frequently at the Hamilton House. The gov- 
ernor gives receptions every Wednesday, which are largely attended, 
and the admiral of the fleet also frequently throws open his house in a 
most hospitable manner. The natives of Bermuda enjoy a charming 
social life among themselves, and are very courteous and hospitable to 
visitors. 

It would take a series of magazine articles to describe all the 
beauties of these islands. Any one who is at all 

Alive to gentle influence 
Of landscape and of sky 

must find in them an undying and ever-varying charm. Here and 
there are wonderful caves full of gleaming stalactites and holding 
within them pools of exquisitely clear water. There are sounds and 
bays that have all the tints of the rainbow, and so clear that you can 
see far down into their depths and behold beautiful coral formations 
and many curious denizens of the sea. Especially out among the reefs 
does the sea disclose most of its wonders : large, lilac-colored, wavy 
fans and branches of white coral, and curious lumps of the same, 
called brain-stones, from their resemblance to the top of the human 
head ; here you see growing all kinds of sea-weed of various hues, and 
beds of pearl-oysters, and sea-anemones, and many kinds of curious 
fish roaming in and out through the delicate fronds of coral. Indeed, 
for so small a place Bermuda has an extraordinary number of interest- 
ing excursions to offer to the sojourner ; but a mere enumeration of 
them would be as dull reading as Homer's catalogue of ships. 

As Bermuda becomes better known, its popularity as a winter 
resort is bound to increase, for the charm of its climate, the beauty 
of its scenery, and the entire change of life which it affords cannot 
fail to attract many to its peaceful shores. In the past the place has 



TO THE SUNSET BREEZE. g(51 

been altogether too modest and retiring : like a fair and shy maiden 
who hates any advertisement of her charms, it has secluded itself from 
observation, and cared not that its attractions should be published to 
the world. But all this is beginning to change ; for, though the Ber- 
mudians seem singularly devoid of that spirit of enterprise and love of 
gain which are inherent in the Anglo-Saxon race, still many of them 
are waking up to the fact that several thousand rich Americans are 
very desirable guests to entertain each season, and may be more profit- 
able even than onions, inasmuch as disease does not blight their pecu- 
niary value, but, on the contrary, rather tends to increase it. Cut off 
from the busy world as the Bermudians are, it is hard for them to 
understand the potent value of advertising, — indeed, the absolute 
necessity of it, if they wish their country and its attractions to be 
known in America. Certainly, with its charming climate and its great 
natural advantages, there is no reason why Bermuda should not be the 
most popular of all winter resorts for the inhabitants of our Eastern 
States who love not the " snow-spirit" and have the time and means to 
escape it. 

H. C. Walsh. 



TO THE SUNSET BREEZE. 

AH, whispering, something again, unseen, 
Where late this heated day thou enterest at my window, door, 
Thou, laving, tempering all, cool-freshing, gently vitalizing 
Me, old, alone, sick, weak -down, melted- worn with sweat; 
Thou, nestling, folding close and firm yet soft, companion better than 

talk, book, art, 
(Thou hast, O Nature ! elements ! utterance to my heart beyond the 

rest — and this is of them,) 
So sweet thy primitive taste to breathe within — thy soothing fingers on 

my face and hands, 
Thou, messenger-magical strange bringer to body and spirit of me, 
(Distances balk'd — occult medicines penetrating me from head to foot.) 
I feel the sky, the prairies vast — I feel the mighty northern lakes, 
I feel the ocean and the forest — somehow I feel the globe itself swift- 
swimming in space; 
Thou blown from lips so loved, now gone — haply from endless store, 

God -sent, 
(For thou art spiritual, Godly, most of all known to my sense,) 
Minister to speak to me, here and now, what word has never told, and 

cannot tell, 
Art thou not universal concrete's distillation ? Law's, all Astronomy's 

last refinement ? 
Hast thou no soul ? Can I not know, identify thee ? 

Walt Whitman. 



862 TYPES IN FICTION. 



TYPES IN FICTION. 

ONE of the best of those " Bab Ballads" which laid the foundation of Mr. 
Pinafore Gilbert's fame is " The Bishop and the Jew." A zealous church- 
dignitary, having determined to convert a Hebrew omnibus-driver, takes a place 
on " the 'bus" every day and loudly calls the attention of the other passengers 
to the distinctive marks of the driver's Semitic descent. With much force and 
directness he says, " Observe, my friends, his nose !" After some months of this 
heroic treatment the victim succumbs ; his beaky nasal organ becomes a broad 
snub, and he is ever afterward known to mankind as Adolphus Brown. 

This ingenious process seems to have found favor with a large number of 
American authors. They select some particular locality or district and take its 
inhabitants as specimens of " a type." Then they devote their energies to the 
work of portraying these people, not as individuals, but as samples of the type, 
concentrating their attention on those external features which different circum- 
stances would quickly obliterate. Of course these features are worthy of some 
attention, and the picture would be far from complete without them. In fact, 
the likelihood of their soon passing away makes it especially important that 
they should be well described. But the fault lies in taking mere accessories as 
the most important part of the subject, or, in the worse cases, allowing them to 
practically exclude everything else. In accordance with this method, an Indian 
— for example — is presented not as a man, woman, or child, but as an Indian, 
and all Indians are warranted to act and think alike in any given situation. 

Perhaps the people of the Southern States are more frequently subjected to 
this species of " type-writing" than those of any other part of our country. That 
some of them object to being " written up" in such fashion is not unnatural. 
Not long ago a Southern lady said, " Why should the authors of all the stories 
about Southerners lay continual and exclusive stress on the fact that they are 
Southerners? If their scenes were laid in the North the characters would not 
be made to pose all the time as Northerners. Their place of birth would be of 
secondary importance, and the main interest in all of them would depend on 
their personal characteristics." This is undeniable; and, though the North is 
certainly more cosmopolitan than the less thickly settled and generally agricul- 
tural South, yet distinct sectional traits are prevalent in both parts of the coun- 
try. The right course to pursue in all such cases is to make the local features as 
natural as possible, but to avoid using them as anything more than helps to 
the realism of the work. 

If this making a part so prominent that it injures the effect of the whole 
were all that is ever done by authors of that class, it would be only a violation 
of the true canons of art. But some of them are accused of a more serious 
offence. It is asserted very warmly that most of their pictures of sectional life 
and character are nothing more than absurd caricatures, calculated to give out- 
siders an utterly false opinion of the localities in question. Such treatment as 
that would be not only like calling general attention to a man's nose, but equiv- 
alent to telling those who never saw it that it is comically distorted, and, more- 
over, highly colored by its owner's too frequent use of stimulants. 

Books that deal with types closely resemble what are called spectacular 



